Do You Pay Regular Visits To Yourself?

My favorite poet, Rumi, asks this question, followed by “Start Now.” Paying regular visits to yourself means you learn to be with your mind, body, and spirit, just as you are. Over time, you learn to tolerate all that comes up when you do this courageous act of visiting self.

The first part of the practice is to be still and notice what happens. The second part of the practice is to increasingly tolerate what you notice.

Why would you choose to visit yourself? Whatever comes up is already going on inside you, you’re just not aware of it! What you are not aware of gets acted out or acted upon in ways that are habitual and compulsive. In other words, you are not free. As you practice visits to yourself, you improve your ability to regulate your emotions. Anxiety decreases as your ability to tolerate it increases. Impulsive urges decrease as you sit with impulses without acting upon them. And as you get to know yourself more and respect what you know, your precious freedom increases!

The quiet darkness of shorter days is the perfect time to go inward and start now to pay regular visits to yourself.